Ballarat's big idea: A whole city powered by itself

The Central Highlands is no stranger to blossoming renewable energy projects - but can Ballarat become the first regional city of more than 100,000 people to be powered completely by locally generated renewable energy? 

Committee for Ballarat CEO Michael Poulton answers this question with a resounding yes – and credits the Ballarat Energy Network (BEN).

⚡ BENs the word: The committee's latest project, the Ballarat Energy Network, aims to showcase Ballarat as an example of what's possible when a region powers itself.

• The objective is to be Australia’s first community-owned energy network, powering a large regional hub with renewable energy that is entirely locally produced. 

• BEN could ultimately lower electricity costs, decarbonise industry, and reinvest energy and its profits back into the community. 

• Committee for Ballarat is a membership-driven organisation that advocates for innovation, sustainability, and prosperity within the Ballarat region. They have led key events in the region such as roundtable discussions and forums with high-ranking politicians, former NASA astronauts, and ex-Olympians.

🦢 Why Ballarat? Poulton said Ballarat is a perfect opportunity for the project because of the already existing industry in town with ambitious net zero emissions plans. Frozen food company McCains for example, has a notable production presence in the city. 

•  “Australia is blessed with renewables - sunshine, wind, large land mass. But we are 10 years behind the northern hemisphere,” said Poulton. 

🗣️ “At scale, this project is industry and community working together. Community energy has worked at a small scale but doesn’t include big energy users like Mars or Selkirk or Haymes Paint. There is a huge capacity for rooftop solar generation there.” 

How it works: According to Poulton, practical implementation is already underway and will work in two parts.

• The first, happening now, will involve individual businesses and industries in Ballarat working with AusNet to assess their energy use. So far more than 20 large businesses are involved.

• Poulton said this analysis has already shown an average saving of electricity drawn from the national grid for these businesses to be 46.4%.

The second part of implementation will involve ongoing management and assistance for these businesses — as well as the orchestration of this energy generation capacity.

This requires further funding and work. In short, the individual level is progressing and the broader network benefits are still to come.

What’s happening to the energy at the moment, anyway? Ballarat produces a lot of renewable energy thanks to the rich sunshine and wind resources all around us. 

Currently, this energy feeds straight back into the national grid. That means, for the average Ballarat resident, there's little obvious benefit.

Poulton said the Committee for Ballarat looked at this and thought: why not increase the local benefit of local output? If energy is generated locally it can be used locally first — with only leftovers being fed back into the national grid.

The focus: Poulton said the region hosts plenty of energy infrastructure for the good of the country, but doesn’t host the benefits.

• “This project would seek to return this to the local community, rather than multinational corporations,” said Poulton.

• “The benefits of the renewable energy transition need to be more clearly communicated. Regional communities in particular see it as a loss - wind turbines on the landscape, transmission lines through properties, and very little money coming back to us as individuals.” 

• “If you reduce the cost of generating energy, you reduce the cost of bills. So far, we are only hearing the cost of doing it and not the long-term return and bigger picture.”

A beam of optimism: Ultimately, Poulton is hopeful for what a successful project could mean for the entire country. 

• “If it works here, it can work in Bendigo,” he said. “It can work in Albury, it can work in Bathurst.”